Decaying Tulip #3

Still standing on the mantel, but only just, these two tulips collapsed moments after this picture was taken.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8

Exposure: ISO 200, f/45 @ 1/3s, tripod

Location: GPS

Processing: DNG in Lightroom 2.7 and Nik Suite workflow

Crushed Tulip

Lying just as I found them on the fireplace mantle, one tulip crushed another as it fell.

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8

Exposure: ISO 200, f/45 @ 1/3s, tripod

Location: GPS

Processing: DNG in Lightroom 2.7 and Nik Suite workflow

Fallen Tulip Petal #1

The colors seem to get richer and more varied on tulips after the flower starts dropping its petals.  I shot this in place, sitting on our fireplace mantle.  

Camera: Nikon D700 

Lens: Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8

Exposure: ISO 200, f/45 @ 1/3s, tripod

Location: GPS

Processing: DNG in Lightroom 2.7 and Nik Suite workflow

Decaying Tulip #2

An entertaining read for monochrome aficionados is George DeWolfe's "B&W Printing: Create the Digital Master Print".  DeWolfe studied with Ansel Adams and his book does a great job of translating the Zone System objectives for silver printing into a digital workflow.  While DeWolfe has a religious bias that all prints should look like they were made by a member of Group F/64, the old school advice is a solid foundation and provides a point of departure for the adventurous.  DeWolfe's book has many excellent before and after examples by guest photographers, with workflows for Photoshop and Lightroom.

This picture is the result of a follow along with the Lightroom workflow.  Of course, a proper member of Group F/64 would not shoot a dying flower in the first place or use a split toner.

Technical: Nikon D700, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f/2.8, ISO 1600, f/32 @ 1/8s.  RAW file processed in Lightroom 2.7 and Nik Tools.

Decaying Tulip #1, Color Solarization

While I'm not a big fan of color solarization, I like to try it one in a while to see what happens.  Starting with the base file of Decaying Tulip #1, I pumped up the contrast in Lightroom, then used Nik Color Efex Pro to make the solarization.

Technical: Nikon D700, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8, ISO 1600, f/32 @ 1/40s.  RAW file processed in Lightroom 2 and Nik Color Efex Pro. GPS

Decaying Tulip #1

A bouquet of tulips on our mantel suddenly wilted in a most spectacular way.  Susan plans to make a painting of the over all scene and I decided to capture some details over the next few days.  Lighting here is with a Calumet Quattro without its shower cap.

Technical: Nikon D700, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8, ISO 1600, f/32 @ 1/40s.  RAW file processed in Lightroom 2 and Nik Suite workflow.

Infrared Tree Abstract #1

On LifePixel.com, the company sells kits to convert cameras to be dedicated infrared devices, there is an excellent tutorial about how to process digital infrared captures in Photoshop that caught my attention.  I decided to play along at home with an old infrared shot from Tower Grove Park.  The key step in the tutorials is to pick a custom white balance to get good tonal separation from the dull red capture.  I had to rough it up a bit beyond the tutorial, but I like the final product as an abstraction.

Technical: Nikon D100, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8, Cokin P007 infrared filter, ISO 200, f/11 @ 1/2s.  RAW file processed in Lightroom 2, translating the Life Pixel recommended Photoshop processing steps, then adding a few of my own, including a sepia/aqua split tone effect.
 

My Grandfather's 1954 Leica M3

Due to ailing eyesight, in 1989 my grandfather, Max Wilson, officially retired from being an artist and gave Susan his painting supplies and me his camera gear.  I've had the cameras sitting on my desk for a while, just to admire the design the elegant design.  This is a picture of a double stroke Leica M3 from 1955.  The lens is a unique collapsible Leitz 50mm f2.8 Elmar, still in fine shape with no fungus.  I love the M3, but the reason for this quickie shot was to test the indoor accuracy of the budget Columbus nGPS unit for Nikon DSLR cameras.

The Columbus nGPS clips into the camera's hot shoe and tethers into the 10-pin accessory jack for power and data I/O.  Indoors, from a cold start, the unit locked into position in 30 seconds.  After the initial fix, warm start acquisition is a barely noticeable one second. Positioning was accurate for all pictures taken inside the house, beating a Garmin eTrex, which works only near a window on the South side of the house.

Recorded with each capture is latitude, longitude, altitude and UCT, but not bearing.  

Very thoughtful and missing from most competing GPS units is a remote release that operates through the nGPS plug.  Without this feature on a Nikon D700, you'd have to choose between the GPS and a cable release.  The build quality seems very solid, but only time will tell.

Technical: Nikon D700, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8, ISO 1600, f/16 @ 1s, hand held.  GPS
RAW file processed in Lightroom 3 Beta 2.

Falls River

Falls River, Rocky Mountain National Park. This is a 2.5 second exposure at mid-day using a really thick neutral density filter.

I recently went to a Tom Murphy seminar where he recommended an ND filter to slow the shutter to 1 second when shooting water. I probably went a little overboard with the 3.0 filter and if you want to try this I'd suggest something a little less extreme, maybe 1.8 or 2.0. But this is fun stuff and I love what it does with the image.

The B/W conversion is custom, starting with the LR low contrast preset. I added an LR graduated filter to darken the rocks in the water at the bottom of the frame - kind of the opposite of it's typical use.

Nikon D3, Nikkor 18-35mm @ 18mm, 2.5 seconds @ f/8, GPS

Japanese Bridge, MOBOT

Mid-morning at the Missouri Botanical Gardens this past Saturday, the light is higher and flatter than I generally like, but the colors are still saturated.

Technical: Nikon D700, Micro-Nikkor 105mm f2.8, ISO 200, f/8.0 @ 1/800s, hand held.  RAW file processed in Lightroom 2.6.